The challenge was to construct an unpowered cart that would be able to roll over a set course and establish the furthest distance possible.
The rules of the cart were simple: 1) It had to be completely self unpowered after the initial push at the start. 2) It must seat 1 person only. 3) It must have a minimum of three wheels. 4) It must have the ability to steer. 5) It must have a form of mechanical braking for use in an emergency.

Of course we also decided to make it look good...

One of the final technical (!) drawings of the chassis, showing the wheel base, driver gravity positioning, wheel mounts and steering concept. This remarkable plan was actually accurate to within 10cms of the finished cart!

This CAD image, supplied by Genius Technical Advisor Alan Ell, was the blueprint for the two support structures that made the entire body shape possible. The smaller oval at the front was the furthermost support at the rear, the larger oval would be the cockpit support. The strakes would then be stretched over the two supports and then down to the nose cone to give Team Genius its shape. Click here to see them in action.

Original design concepts for Team Genius.

Many more designs were mulled over but the car took it's own natural shape once the chassis and CAD supports were in place. The natural bend of the stringers was the final decisive influence on how the body would look.

Team Genius needed sound! Despite the fact that engines were forbidden, as a psychological blow to our opponents we created an engine. A very noisy engine. The sound was powered by two bass reflex speakers and a car hi-fi. A battery compartment was concealed behind the drivers seat and the hi-fi mounted in the cockpit (it also sounded really well with music!). The engine noise was Jon's Landrover, eq'd and overdubbed at different pitches. To hear a short example of the engine, click the photo on the left (MP3 format). AVAILABLE SOON
The speaker principle was simple, attach two speaker to two tubes pointing upwards. Deaden the rear of the speaker housing and create two rear firing vent portals to try and generate some "throat". Master the engine sound to the point (just over in fact) of distortion whilst adding sub harmonics to the sound to deepen it. The MP3 file doesn't really do the finished result justice because of the nature of the speaker enclosure...

 

 

 

 

Genius2 recording the engine noise, Genius3 was giving the engine some serious throttle with a huge grin...

Braking was another issue. Due to the stringent regulations (and internal politics!), Team Genius took no chances with the braking facility on the car. Two dual-pivot caliper brakes were positioned on each rear wheel with the "only use it in an emergency" philosophy. This was because each time the brake handle was applied the cables would stretch, the calipers would move in their mounts and the whole system would have to be reset, a fairly lengthy process.
A single handle on a pivot (situated between the drivers legs for easy access) would pull two independent cables (one for each caliper, another safety feature) which in turn would apply the brakes.

Aerodynamics played an integral part in the design of Team Genius. From the outset the whole team wanted something unique, streamlined and stylish.
Whilst the aerodynamic benefits of the bodywork would not become apparent until it's upper speeds were reached, the car proved to handle better as a result of the weight of the bodywork and balance. Once the car's upper cruising speed was obtained the airflow around the nose was used to generate lift below the front wheels, this saved rolling resistance on the unreliable castors but still maintained a good degree of steering control (steering was deemed less important after the initial turn and would only be used for fine tuning, the car was not supposed to reach aero-efficient speed until after the turn <although because of the finely tuned balance of driver and car, when Jason took the car for it's second run the equilibrium was drastically upset with devastating results as you will see later!>). Down force was deemed unnecessary at the rear of the car as the center of gravity was through the rear axles. Originally a concrete ballast block was placed in the nose to control the degree of lift at the front end but was later removed at the driver's request. Jon, after testing the car at close to maximum speed with and without the ballast, ascertained that he could control the lift by slightly shifting his body weight forwards of the rear axles if he needed more traction at the front end. Note the very rear of the car is sloping upwards to allow excessive degrees of lift if needed (not that it was recommended, skid plates were added as a precaution).
Due to the nature of the only (left) turn on the course, Team Genius was built slightly shallower on the port side. This allowed a tighter turn without disrupting the airflow over the body. The car was also slightly set to pull to the left in the steering column to allow a glide rather than an abrupt twist when the turn was reached. The centrifugal force generated by the turn had to be countered by the driver in order to prevent the car from flipping (also a reason for the crash, Jon was trained in this as Jason's inexperience showed). A heavier driver would make the corner faster but the increased danger of severe off balance was apparent.

 

Click here to view the initial construction of Team Genius.